From rnews Mon Jun 15 12:39:06 1992 Xref: umn.edu comp.sys.atari.st:8203 news.answers:1733 Path: umn.edu!spool.mu.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.iastate.edu!vincent1.iastate.edu!sourada From: sourada@iastate.edu (Steven D Ourada) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,news.answers Subject: Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st! Summary: Some frequent questions and answers about Atari 16/32 bit computers. Please read this before asking a question on comp.sys.atari.st. Message-ID: Date: 15 Jun 92 15:28:11 GMT Article-I.D.: vincent1.sourada.708622091 Expires: Wed, 15 Jul 1992 00:00:00 GMT Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: comp.sys.atari.st Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA Lines: 788 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Archive-name: csas-faq/part1 Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st! Please read this FAQ before posting a question to comp.sys.atari.st, since a lot of common questions are answered here. Thanks to David Paschall-Zimbel (davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu) for compiling most of this FAQ. The following is an index of the questions answered in this part of the FAQ. For easy access to a particular question, search for the tag surrounded by colons (i. e. :GNU:) WEL Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st BOOKS What books are available for the Atari ST? DEV How do I become a developer for the Atari ST? ERR What does TOS ERROR nn mean? FREE What is Free-Net and how can I get access? MAGS What magazines are available for the Atari ST? TIPS TIPS AND HINTS from other users ZNET Where can I get copies of ZNET? PD Where can I get Public Domain/Shareware software? MAIL E-Mail file servers FTP Anonymous FTP servers :WEL: Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st ============================ This newsgroup is devoted to discussion about 16 and 32 bit Atari micros. At present that includes the Atari 520ST, 1040ST, Mega ST, STe, STacy, Mega STe, and the Atari TT. There are also emulators for the Apple Macintosh and IBM PC/XT/AT available. Most of the people who read this newsgroup are technically oriented. The newsgroup serves as a resource for Atari users ... feel free to contribute to the discussions. Associated newsgroups include: comp.binaries.atari.st ! uuencoded binary programs comp.sys.atari.st.tech ! technical programming/hardware topics comp.sources.atari.st ! uuencoded/shar sources :BOOKS: What books are available for the Atari ST? ========================================== The (Almost) Complete Guide to Atari Reference Books Atari Coropration 1196 Borregas Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Atari TOS Developer's Kit Atari has now make the developer's documentation public. See DEV above for more information. Atari UK Software Support Atari Atari House Railway Terrace Slough, BERKS United Kingdom SL2 5BZ Tel 0753 53344 "A few people have asked for more info on the release by Atari UK of the programming docs. They have been released as 5 books." Programming Guides GEMDOS/BIOS & general programming. 238 pages. #29.99. (# = the British pound). Still Another Line A Doc (SALAD), Intelligent keyboard protocol, chkdsk3 docs, midi assoc address sheet. Programming Guides New machines. 184 pages. #29.99. Rainbow TOS release notes, STE developers addendum, STE TOS release notes, TT030 TOS release notes, TT030 hardware ref manual, VMS expansion for TT & MegaSTe. Includes 2 disks of utilities, examples, xcontrol & docs. Programming Guides - GEM VDI Programming Guides - GEM AES - combined books. 514 pages. #49.99 All the above together #99.99 Hardware and Chip Specs. 228 pages. #29.99 Engineering hardware spec, ACSI, MC6850, 68901, ay3-8910, wd1770, blitter Monitor & cartridge port. Also schematics. [Info from a posting by Iain Laskey dated 30 Nov 1991] Compute! Publications,Inc. PO Box 5406,Greensboro NC 27403(919-275-9809) Computes Technical Refence Guide Volume One. VDI Sheldon Leeman ISBN 0-87455-093-9 Computes Technical Refence Guide Volume Two. AES Sheldon Leeman ISBN 0-87455-114-5 Computes Technical Refence Guide Volume Three. TOS Sheldon Leeman ISBN 0-87455-149-8 Learning C. Programming Graphics on the Amiga and Atari ST. Marc B. Sugiyama and Christopher D. Metcalf ISBN 0-87455-064-5 Compute's ST Applications Guide. Programming in C Simon Feild,Kathleen Mandis and Dave Myers ISBN 0-87455-078-5 Scott,Foresman and Company. Professional Publishing Group 1900 East Lake Avenue,Glenville IL 600025 Learning C on the Atari ST Joseph Boyle Wikert ISBN 0-673-18738-1 Sybex Inc. 2344 Sixth St. Berkely,CA 94710 Programmers Guide To GEM Phillip Balma and William Fitler ISBN 0-553-34397-1 Taylor Ridge Books PO Box 48 Manchester, Connecticut (no zip listed) usa (203)643-9673 C-manship Complete, $19.95 Calyton Walnum No ISBN "a decent book on programming your st gem/aes/vdi plus other stuff that is based on the 31 articles that Clayton Walnum wrote for Analog. It was written on a mega 4 with Calamus." Addison-Wesley Pub. 68000 Assembly Language Donal Kantz & James Stanley ISBN 0-201-11659-6 "An interesting book on 68000 for the Atari (and amiga too, but both in the abstract)" atari.archive.umich.edu Assembly Language Programming Robert Arp Disk archives, not published in paper at this time. "It is an excellent guide to assembly languuage programming. It is very large and takes quite a while to make a hard copy if you desire to do so. The file names are arp68k-book.tar (the text) and arp68k-pix.Z.tar (.img files to go along with the text)." **************************************************************** * * THE FOLLOWING BOOKS ARE CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT * Abacus Software,Inc. 5370 52nd Street,S.E. Grand Rapids,MI 49508 Atari ST Internals K Gerits,L. Englisch and R. Bruckmann ISBN 0-916439-46-1 Atari ST GEM Programmers Reference Norbert Szczepanowski and Bernt Gunther ISBN 0-916439-52-6 Atari ST 3d Graphics Programming Uwe Braun ISBN 0-916439-69-0 Atari ST Disk Drives Inside and Out Uwe Brawn,Stephan Dittrich and Axel Schramm ISBN 0-916439-84 Atari ST Machine Language B.Grohmann,P.eidler and H.Slibar ISBN 0-916439-48-8 Atari ST Introduction to MIDI Programming Len Dorfman and Dennis Young ISBN 0-916439-77-1 Bantam Books,Inc. 666 5th Avenue New York,New York 10103 Atari ST Application Programming Lawrence J. Pollack and Eric J.T.Weber ISBN 0-553-34397-1 **************************************************************** * * This List can be freely distributed and added to * All I ask is that people identify the added information as * their own * John Henders * Vancouver,BC * On Usenet uunet!ubc-cs!van-bc!jhenders * On ForumST John henders@448 * On GEnie c/o D.LEMAY2 * * C-Manship & 68000 Assembley Language suggested by Joe Gaudreau [DPZ] * Robert Arp's Assembley Language book suggested by David P. Forrai [DPZ] :DEV: How do I become a developer for the Atari ST? ============================================= Contact Gail Johnson, Atari Rep Person, (408)745-2568 [UNITED STATES ONLY. IF YOU LIVE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES, CONTACT YOUR COUNTRY'S ATARI HEADQUARTERS FOR MORE INFORMATION.] Gail can explain the program to you, and send an information packet if you desire. Atari has gone to a 2-tier developer membership. The 'higher quality' developer support goes to commercial developers, and costs $250. The 'no-hand-holding, no announcement of company future products, no access to discounted hardware' goes to noncommercial developers, at an initial cost of $125, plus $50 renewal fee each year. Both tiers receive the ST/TT Developer Kit and all developers have to fill in an application form and a non-disclosure agreement. Contact Gail for more information. Atari is now selling the developer's kit (or parts of it) seperately. No project-in-development or non-disclosure agreement is necessary. :ERR: What does TOS ERROR nn mean? What do the bombs on my screen mean? ==================================== The information below was written, in part, by Darryl May, and posted on GEnie in January (of ????) by John Townsend. The original also appeared in the June 1988 issue of _Current Notes_ (122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 22170). It has since found its way to me, and is being posted to comp.sys.atari.st as a service to readers. Alan Pratt wrote to tell me that the basic information may be correct, but that it cannot be dubbed "official" unless it originates, on paper, from Atari. This makes sense, as electronic communications are easily modified, even accidentally. Roland Waldi provided information regarding the difference between TOS and GEM return codes which appears to be correct. The tables have been modified to reflect his information. The following is an unofficial list of the errors that can appear while you are operating your ST computer. Error description return code alert box # ====================================================== OK (no error)....................0 Fundamental error...............-1 Drive not ready.................-2 Unknown command.................-3 CRC error.......................-4 Bad request.....................-5 Seek error......................-6 Unknown media...................-7 Sector not found................-8 No paper........................-9 Write fault....................-10 Read fault.....................-11 General error..................-12 Write protect..................-13 Media change...................-14 Unknown device.................-15 Bad sectors on format..........-16 Insert other disk..............-17 Invalid function number........-32............1 File not found.................-33............2 Path not found.................-34............3 No handles left................-35............4 Access denied..................-36............5 Invalid handle.................-37............6 Insufficient memory............-39............8 Invalid memory block address...-40............9 Invalid drive specified........-46...........15 No more files..................-49...........18 Range error....................-64...........33 Internal error.................-65...........34 Invalid program load format....-66...........35 The last code is the infamous "TOS error 35"! Also, some unofficial information via Alan Pratt: Notably, you should add -48: ENSAME (not the same drive, occurs when you call Frename and the two names you give aren't on the same drive), and -67: EGSBF: you can't use Mshrink to GROW a block of memory. Those bombs that appear on your screen are error messages from the 68000 micro-processor. Number Description of bombs =========================================== Reset: Initial PC2...............1 Bus Error........................2 Address Error....................3 Illegal Instruction..............4 Zero Divide......................5 CHK Instruction..................6 TRAPV Instruction................7 Privilege Violation..............8 Trace............................9 Line 1010 Emulator..............10 Line 1111 Emulator..............11 [unassigned, reserved]..........12 [unassigned, reserved]..........13 Format Error....................14 Uninitialized Interrupt Vector..15 [unassigned, reserved].......16-23 Spurious Interrupt..............24 Level 1 Interrupt Autovector....25 Level 2 Interrupt Autovector....26 Level 3 Interrupt Autovector....27 Level 4 Interrupt Autovector....28 Level 5 Interrupt Autovector....29 Level 6 Interrupt Autovector....30 Level 7 Interrupt Autovector....31 Trap Instruction Vectors.....32-47 [unassigned, reserved].......48-63 User Interrupt Vectors......64-255 :FREE: What is Free-Net and how can I get access? ========================================== A "Remodeled" Atari S.I.G. Opens By now many of you have heard of the Cleveland Freenet, or more specifically the Atari S.I.G. on the Cleveland Freenet. For those who haven't, the Cleveland Freenet is an experimental computer system providing free public community telecomputing. Basically, it's a lot like a public library of the future. Many of these systems are popping up all over the country. Don't be surprised if one pops up in your neighborhood in the future. Recently the Atari SIG has undergone a significant face-lift. All the regular areas are intact including its news sections, user group newsletter, online magazine sections, general as well as specific computer discussion boards (8 bit, 16/32 bit, Lynx, Portfolio), and our weekly Sunday night multi-chat conference. The conference starts at 8pm EST sharp and is on channel "+Ataricon". What the staff at the Atari SIG has added, has given the Atari SIG the potential to cover all grounds of Atari and its related products. The most noticeable addition to the Atari SIG is the Programming and Development Forum. This forum is intended to be used by developers, professional programmers, and Atari hackers (the old definition of "hacker") as a means to share ideas, help each other out, and find out the latest technical information on Atari's products. This board is ran by newly acquired SIG Operator, Peter Haller, a professional programmer who is running developer sections on hardware and software development, programming, MIDI applications development, Graphics Design, plus many other sections that can definitely become a programmer and developer's dream come true! Last, but definitely not least, the Atari SIG has a restructured Product Info and Support Board and a new Special Applications Board. The Support Board includes a vast library of support lists. These lists range anywhere from phone numbers of Atari dealers and producers, to software reviews for 8 bit, 16/32 bit, Lynx, and Portfolio software. To sum it all up this area covers what's out there, who makes it, and how to get it for all Atari products. The Special Applications Board is just starting out. Currently there is an area for users of MIDI on the ST. MIDI users are encouraged to use this as a means to discuss MIDI related topics. This section is expected to expand in the future. Accessing the Atari SIG has never been easier. One can access it via Internet by telenet'ing to 129.22.8.75 or "Freenet-in-b.cwru.edu" or by calling (216) 368-3888 300/1200/2400 bps. Once on the system, a user can apply for an account application and logon as a visitor. Once here, simply type "Go Atari" to get to the Atari SIG. A visitor can go anywhere on the Freenet and can read anything. They can't post messages until they get their permanent accounts, however. For additional information on obtaining access to Freenet write to myself via the e-mail addresses above or by writing the SIG at its US mail address: The Atari SIG P.O. Box 21815 Cleveland, OH 44121 USA Lastly, a freenet application is available in the mail by writing a request to the above address if you rather not download it from Freenet. The Atari SIG is ready to serve the thousands of Atarians throughout the world. We look forward to seeing you all real soon! Remember the staff of the Atari SIG are volunteering their time for no pay and the Cleveland Freenet, as well as the Atari S.I.G., is a non-profit organization existing for the free exchange of information. -- Mark Leair Atari SIG Public Relations Internet e-mail: aa338@Cleveland.Freenet.edu CIS e-mail : internet>aa338@Cleveland.Freenet.edu :MAGS: What magazines are available for the Atari ST? ============================================== The information here is preliminary. If you've got updates, mini-reviews, or more information on other magazines, please send them to me via e-mail. As always, WRITE to a company before sending them money for a subscription. US mags: AtariUser, published by Quill Publishing Company --------- Cover Price: US $1.00 Canada $1.45 UK 1.50 (AtariUser is available for free [$6.00/50 magazine shipping charge] from participating computer dealers, bookstores & user groups!) Subcription Rate: $21.30 US Bulkrate, $41.30 US First Class. Address: AtariUser, 113 W. College Street, Covina, CA 91723 USA Current Notes, published by Current Notes Inc. ------------- Cover Price: US $3.95 Subscription Rate: $27.00/year (Atari clubs registered with Current Notes may subscribe at $23.00/year) US, $35.00/year (Canadian club members at $31/year) Canadian, Foreign rate $44/year. Address: Current Notes Inc., 122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 22170 USA Atari Interface: --------------- Write for a free sample copy of the Atari Interface magazine (Unicorn Publications, 3487 Braeburn Circle, Ann Arbor, MI 48108) AIM is soon to be available in Canada, Europe and Mexico, and should be in all local WaldenSoftware stores and many bookstores. If your "local" Atari dealer doesn't have it, he should be able to get it for you... UK Mags: ST Applications: --------------- formerly the ST Club Newsletter, this is now the only non-games mag in the UK (although see ST World below). Approx. 4,500 copies per issue sold. News, reviews, interviews, tech tips, general forum, programmers' forum, PD catalogue. DTP'd on an ST. Retains a 'user-driven' feel. Recommended. The associated ST Club runs a PD distribution service and distributes a couple of commercial programs too (Fontkit Plus, UIS III, Molgraph, CRL Virus Killer, etc.). Subscription costs: UK - 15 pounds; Europe - 18 pounds (Air Mail); worldwide - 28 pounds (Air Mail) Address: ST Club, 49 Stoney Street, Nottingham, NG1 1LX ENGLAND ST World: -------- formerly the leading UK non-games mag. Became a quarterly 'buyer's guide' in Autumn 90. Now, allegedly, about to be revived as a monthly (under the stewardship of Jean Gollner, mother of ex-editor Hugh) in the wake of Atari UK's new push into the 'serious' market. ST Format: --------- all-purpose 150-page monthly, mainly aimed at young people. Lively, but of uneven quality. Big leisure section, but other areas covered too. Includes cover disk - mix of games demos and (usually out of date) PD utilities. Probably the biggest-selling UK ST mag. Has had several public rows with Atari UK. Atari ST User: ------------- like ST Format. Generally (amongst online users) thought to be not quite as good. ST Action: --------- games, games and more games. And games. There are ST sections in New Computer Express (weekly), Computer Shopper (monthly) and some general-purpose games mags whose names I forget. There are also, I think, some MIDI mags with strong ST content. I don't have their names. German Mags: Atari PD Journal: ---------------- Reviewed in the May '91 issue of Current Notes [from which I'm cribbing this information, DP-Z]. Hardware and Software reviews, some commercial software reviewed. Typical issue runs around 90 pages. Special "Katalog" section. Subscription: DM 70 (normal mail), DM 100 (air mail). Prices may be for domestic distribution -- write first! Address: Heim Verlag, PD Abonnement, Heidleberger Landstrasse 194, 6100 Darmstadt 13 GERMANY ST-Magazin (formerly 68000er): ----------------------------- (monthly) Typical issue: around 150 pages. Includes DTP-magazine CICERO. Subscription: DM 77 (domestic distribution); foreign - write for information Address: ST-Magazin, Markt & Technik Verlag AG, Hans-Pinsel-Strasse 2, D-8013 Haar bei Muenchen GERMANY ST Computer: ----------- 11 issues/year, typical around 180 pages Subscription: DM 80 (domestic), DM 100 (normal mail), DM 130 (air mail) Address: Heim Verlag, Heidelberger Landstr. 194, D-6100 Darmstadt 13 GERMANY :TIPS: TIPS AND HINTS from other users =============================== Any 'multisync' monitor which handles 70 video fields a second can be used with the ST; the custom cable involves no tricks, or commercial ones are available. The original NEC multisync does NOT handle 70 fields a sec. More than 3 bombs often means more than 1 error, so interpretations are tricky. An ST-formatted disk which is not readable by a PC can be made readable by putting the 3 bytes EB 34 90 (those were 3 bytes of hex) at the beginning of the boot sector (sector 1 of track 0, I believe). This can be done with either an ST or PC absolute sector editor. The Desktop of TOS 1.4 and higher does this automatically. Note that the only format of disk that will work between both the PC and ST is 9 sectors, 80 tracks. Some (older) PC-3.5"-drives cannot deal with the short track-header produced by ST formatters. On those drives, ST-formatted disks are not readable, independent of their boot sector contents. The other way, however, does always work: format on the PC. When using disks formatted on a PC in an ST, make sure to insert and access a disk with a different serial number in between disk changes. For those with the 'inaccessible' mouse and joystick ports, a joystick extender cable will make life easier. The Y-cable joystick extenders make it extremely easy to keep mouse and joystick connected to port 0, and a joystick extender cable in port 1 makes for easy hookup after you've moved the machine. BARREL is a program which can redirect printer-data to a file. It comes in handy when your printer is unavailable, and the program does not already have an option to 'print-to-a-file'. (It is available on the atari.archive server.) DBLEFEAT is a program which can redirect disk access from, say, drive A to drive B. Handy when a program 'hard-codes' the data drive, and you wish to use your hard drive instead. (It is available on the atari.archive server.) On the Desktop of TOS 1.4 or higher, holding the right mouse button allows you to manipulate files in other windows. This is useful for a number of reasons. An example is this: say D:\BLAH.ARC is a file you would like to extract to D:\, but ARC.TTP is on C:\. Top D:\'s window, then hold the right button while double-clicking ARC.TTP in an inactive window. :ZNET: Where can I get copies of ZNET? =============================== ZNET on-line magazine is available on CompuServe and GEnie. You can also get copies mailed to you by sending an e-mail message to stzmagazine-request@virginia.edu indicating you wish to subscribe. They won't get to you on Friday (which is when they're posted), but Greg Lindahl provides an excellent service to the networking community by sending these out. ZNET and some information from the Current Notes user magazine are also available from the atari.archive server under /atari/magazines. :PD: Where can I get Public Domain/Shareware software? ========================================================== There are FTP sources and a comp.sources.atari.st/comp.binaries.atari.st mail server. You can also try the commercial on-line services such as GEnie, CompuServe, Delphi and Bix. Using FTP, most files should be retrieved in BINARY format (at least those ending with the suffix of .ARC, .LZH, .ZOO, .PRG, .TTP, .TOS) Mail servers encode files. You will need a program called 'uudecode' in order to change files ending with the suffix .UUE (or .UAB, .UAC, etc.) into their original form. :MAIL: E-Mail file servers archive-server@twitterpater.Eng.Sun.COM: --------------------------------------- Twitterpater holds all of the comp.sources.atari.st / comp.binaries.atari.st postings. If you aren't reading these two newsgroups, you should consider doing so. You may obtain uuencoded files as e-mail. You can obtain a help file by mailing a message to archive-server@twitterpater.eng.sun.com, with the main body of the message being the word 'help'. atari@atari.archive.umich.edu: ----------------------------- The atari.archive server is mentioned many times in this article. It contains a multitude of Atari ST PD and shareware programs. If you don't have access via FTP you can obtain many of the files via e-mail. You should first obtain a help file by mailing a message to atari@atari.archive.umich.edu, with the main body of the message being the word 'help.'. If you are from a uucp site, please enclose this statement also 'path host1!host2!....', where host1!host2!... is your path. Please read the help file completely before you ask questions, and then send any you may have to jon@atari.archive.umich.edu. Any questions about the archive or specific files go to weiner@atari.archive.umich.edu archive-server@lancs.pdsoft: --------------------------- This is a UK public domain archive, available to sites within the UK via via JANET. info-server@ftp.Informatik.Uni-dortmund.DE: ------------------------------------------ This is a german public domain archive. mail-server@cs.ruu.nl (or uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!mail-server): --------------------------------------------------------------- send the following message begin path john@highbrow.edu (PLEASE SUBSTITUTE *YOUR* ADDRESS) send ATARI-ST/index end NOTE: *** PLEASE USE VALID INTERNET ADDRESSES IF POSSIBLE. DO NOT USE ADDRESSES WITH ! and @ MIXED !!!! BITNETTERS USE USER@HOST.BITNET *** The path command can be deleted if we receive a valid from address in your message. If this is the first time you use our mail server, we suggest you first issue the request: send HELP LISTSERV@UOGUELPH.BITNET: ------------------------ Mail messages with the contents HELP will bring you some usage information and GET PROG-A16 FILELIST will provide you with a list of files. Subscriptions to INFO-A16 are also available on this server. INFO-A16 is a digest of messages from comp.sys.atari.st. :FTP: Anonymous FTP servers Note: The generally accepted practice for FTP use is as follows: 1. Limit access times to non-working hours. This is usually 6-8 pm to 8-9 am LOCAL time. LOCAL time means local to the computer you are accessing! For example, 4 P.M. in Minneapolis, Minnesota is 10 P.M. in England, and 10 A.M. in Germany is 4 A.M. in New York. 2. Once you connect, issue the following commands at your FTP prompt: user anonymous 3. Limit downloads, especially across the ocean. Remember, there are other people who are using the same lines as you. Atari FTP sites (the list is -not- exhaustive) ---------------------------------------------- atari.archive.umich.edu [141.211.164.8] uk.ac.lancs.pdsoft (available to UK users via JANET) Note: Access is a bit different for this archive site, use the following: user pdsoft pdsoft (at the Password prompt) ftp.Informatik.Uni-dortmund.DE [129.217.64.63] cs.uni-sb.de [134.96.7.254] archive.cs.ruu.nl [131.211.80.5] ===================================================================== Hope you liked the comp.sys.atari.st FAQ. If you have comments, suggestions, more material, etc., mail me at sourada@iastate.edu Thanks to David Paschall-Zimbel (davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu) for compiling most of this FAQ. Later, Steven Ourada -- ----------------- Steven Ourada Member of the Students for Electronic Freedom Ask me how Iowa State University is censoring my Usenet access! sourada@iastate.edu "can't casts no shadow" -- cummings